Pay It Forward

Meri and Bob Goodman

When Bob Goodman sat in the YNHH waiting room, counting the seconds until he would hear whether or not his beloved wife Meri had ovarian cancer, he made a deal with God: “Make this be okay, and I will do anything.”

Remembering that anxious day, Bob says, “And if you promise God something, you had better come through!”  Meri did better than “okay.” Thankfully, she did not have cancer. Bob asked Meri what she thought he should do to pay off his “debt,” and she immediately said that they had to donate to the hospital.

Meri had been experiencing all the symptoms of that dreaded disease. Her doctor referred her to Peter Schwartz, MD, a YNHH gynecological oncologist, who told her that he was 95% sure that she did not have cancer, and initially declined to take the case. Meri knew she was going to need a complete hysterectomy because of her symptoms. But whoever performed the operation would not know if she had ovarian cancer until she was opened up. “I put Dr. Schwartz on the spot. I asked what happens if I am that 5%? Would my local hospital know what to do? Will they be prepared?”

He said, “I’ll take your case.”

“I knew from the start that I was in very good hands, and it gave both of us a real peace of mind. We want other people to get the same kind of care that we received,” says Meri. Together, the couple planned an unrestricted bequest in their will of over $1 million, to be split between YNHH and Greenwich Hospital which is also part of the Yale New Haven Health System.

“I remember how grateful I was. They took good care not just of Meri, but of me as well. They made sure to let me know what was going on every step of the way,” says Bob, the former chief economist of Putnam Investments, a mutual fund company.

The Greenwich, CT, couple decided to name YNHH in their will and were delighted to discover how easy it was to accomplish. Bob marvels, “I had been looking at ways to fund different things, and they were all a pain in the neck. This was so simple. We were having a will made, and we just told the lawyer what we specifically wanted. He wrote it in, we signed it, and it was done. It was the easiest thing I’ve ever done financially.”

Meri agrees, “I checked a box and signed my name and we were done!”